Mackey leaves White Mountain; Buser, Steer pull in
WHITE MOUNTAIN, Alaska — Puffy-eyed and cheeks rosy from exposure to too much cold air and wind, Paul Gebhardt and Lance Mackey were still cracking smiles when they awoke from four hours of deep slumber to learn they were still the only two mushers here.
The two former neighbors, now first and second in the waning moments of the 2007 Iditarod, joked together and talked about dogs, and the race. As Gebhardt went outside to give his team a last snack, Mackey was gearing up to leave. Mackey has a two and a half hour lead, which is insurmountable barring a major setback.
Gebhardt, fine-tuning the pack job on his sled as daylight brightened on Fish River, was comfortable with his place. “It’s pretty foolish of a person to feel bad about second in the Iditarod,” he said. “It isn’t finished, but I’m glad where I’m at.”
The 50-year-old Kasilof, Alaska, musher said he was physically “pretty wiped out,” after suffering through a head cold the whole race, and some frostbite. “I’m happy for Lance,” he said. “Hopefully, he’ll have a clean run in.”
The pair worked together starting back at Iditarod. Gebhardt figured if they ran together they had a better chance to overtake the two four-time champions in their path, Martin Buser and Jeff King. “I told Lance, if we could work together, we can race each other later,” Gebhardt said.
The two took turns breaking trail, so that the team behind would have less stress on its leaders. It is very easy for one team to trot along following another sled. And it wouldn’t be the first collaboration between them. They lived next door until last summer when Mackey moved from Kasilof to Fox, Alaska. Before the move, Gebhardt would sometimes race Mackey’s dogs, and Mackey would use Gebhardt’s.
Just before Mackey pulled out for his final leg of what should be a triumphant run into Nome, Gebhardt walked over and wished him well. “Have a good run!” he said.
“Thank you, sir; you too,” Mackey responded.
Mackey then answered questions as he bootied his dogs, stopping now and then to talk about his father, Dick, and sometimes coming close to tears. In fact, Mackey said he kind of hoped he didn’t get into Nome until after dark so people wouldn’t see him blubbering. Oh, there’ll be plenty of lights, a TV cameraman noted.
Regarding his father, Mackey said, “I can’t think of anything else I can do to make him more proud.”
With that, he asked his main leader Larry, a furry gray dog, to line out the team. Larry took off in single lead, head down and driving forward as Mackey’s nine-dog team moved out of sight around a bend in Fish River. The black booties on his dogs’ feet flowed in an easy rhythm as they padded toward destiny.
A few minutes later, Martin Buser came in, looking a lot happier than he has the whole race. He said his team was feeling better, too. And as Buser got to work caring for his dogs, Zack Steer – the surprise of the 2007 Iditarod – pulled to a stop. Steer was only 20 minutes behind Buser, so the pair will have a footrace once they come off their mandatory eight-hour layover around 6 p.m. tonight.